LIVERPOOL FC should find a way of persuading Jamie Carragher to carry on playing for another season.

Carragher’s stock has risen even further in his absence from the first team. Brendan Rodgers admitted as much when he said the centre-back’s experience and leadership had been missed in big games.

Certainly, he brings a presence that Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel don’t. Agger and Skrtel are fine defenders, but neither is a true organiser.

Carragher is. And it is a very under-rated quality, one that too many managers overlook.

In the modern game, you can see so much of what is in front of you and a lot of it as a defender is about being in position.

When you have someone with such fantastic experience telling you what to do, it makes a difference. Some of the youngsters go out and don’t understand how it works, they go off instinct.

This is why Carragher should be given another year. He can teach other players, and the likes of Martin Kelly and Andre Wisdom in particular, how to talk themselves through games.

Some people aren’t talkers. They can only concentrate on what they do. But once you become comfortable with the concept, it is perfectly reasonable to be expected to give other players some vocal guidance.

Of course, Carragher is keen to play more regularly and it may be that he decides to call it a day. But he’s such an influential figure in the dressing room that he has to stay involved somehow.

I can’t see Carragher moving on to play for the likes of Blackpool, Burnley or Blackburn. He is a one-club man and even going to another Premier League team just wouldn’t be the same.

Obviously, he won’t play as often as he would like. But I’d be tempted to play him in the reserves between games so he can teach the youngsters some good habits.